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Arsenal have just poached key behind-the-scenes figure from Liverpool after £118m triumph

Adam Williams

Tue 14 January 2025 18:45, UK

Arsenal and Liverpool used to make up two of English football’s ‘big three’ but the orthodoxy has been disrupted somewhat in the modern era, both on the pitch and at the bank.

Alongside Manchester United, Liverpool and Arsenal’s♎ status as the most decorated and mythologised clubs in the country insulated them from financial failure.

♕Each of the three clubs have spent long periods in the wilderness. Liverpool went 30 years without a league title. For Arsenal, it’s now over 20. United’s last triumph came in 2012-13.

But financially at least, the trio have been remarkably resilient for the most part. Revenues have continued to grow and profitability is not the distant aim it is for most in the Premier League.

꧋That is thanks to what marketeers might call their ‘brands’, which are reflected in their ability to sell sponsorships, tickets and merchandise through association with the club crest alone.

Arsenal, Liverpool and Man United’s commercial income

▨In total, the trio’s combined commercial income stood at £744m in the last recorded financial year. In the next two to three seasons, that figure will probably hit £1bn.

♍For context, the 14 other clubs outside the so-called Big Six earned combined commercial income of £445m over the same period.

That has lent weight to the notion of a glass ceiling in football finance🧸. The label ‘red cartel’ has even started to gain traction among the more conspiratorially minded.

𝔉However, we need to talk about Arsenal, the ugly duckling of the Big Six in monetary terms.

Mikel Arteta’s ability to challenge rivals threatened by commercial issues

While Mikel Arteta’sꦛ side are struggling at present, the Gunners have been transformed under the Spaniard in recent years. But that has not yet been reflected in the balance sheets.

🥃Their last annual revenue statistic was £464m. A huge number in isolation, yes, but one that is dwarfed by some of their peer group.

🐓That means they are £40m behind Chelsea, almost £50m behind Tottenham and, frankly, in an entirely different weight class to the two Manchester clubs and Liverpool.

🦂Football clubs have three income sources – media, matchday and commercial. Arsenal compete at the top end in the first two categories, meaning the disparity comes from the commercial department.

🦩But why should you, as a supporter, care about these trivialities?

Stan Kroenke๊, head honcho of Arsenal ownership group Kroenke Sports & Entertainment (KSE), runs a tight ship. While he personally is worth around £15bn, he seldom injects his own cash into the club.

The self-sufficient model he and son Josh Kroenke𝐆, co-chairs at the Emirates, favour means that virtually every penny spent on recruitment and retention needs to be fully priced in elsewhere in the business.

🃏Martin Zubimendi looks as though he will sign for Arsenalꦿ in the summer, but fans have grown frustrated that spending on wages and transfers still doesn’t match their rivals, per the club’s own accounts.

Arsenal recognise this disadvantage and are now innovating in an attempt to catch up, with new initiatives such as a centralised KSE sponsorship division established in recent weeks.

🥀Now, the North Londoners have made a another ambitious under-the-radar move, this time at the expense of Liverpool.

• READ MORE: 💮£76.4m striker has been offered to Mikel Arteta in last 24 hours while Arsenal hold Martin Zubimendi talks

Arsenal hire former Liverpool executive Andrew Sheridan

In many ways, the owners of Liverpool, Fenway Sports Group (FSG), and Arsenal are very similar.

ꦬBoth are among the world’s biggest private sports and entertainment investors, with stakes in English football and every major American sport, as well as a growing portfolio in sports-adjacent businesses.

ꦰThey both are relatively conservative in their approaches to running a football club, where revenues are not broadly fixed as they are in US franchise sport.

💜KSE and FSG are both in the capital growth game when it comes to Premier League football – buy low, sell high. One day, they will flip their clubs for a huge profit.

🔴Liverpool’s enterprise value, around £4.5bn by most estimations, however is more than twice Arsenal’s.

🀅That is in large part due to their commercial strategy.

🦹It may also be why, per an announcement on the executive’s page, Arsenal have poached Andrew Sheridan, formerly Liverpool’s Vice-President of Commercial Growth & Development.

🔯Sheridan, who also spent three years at Man United as a commercial analyst, was with Liverpool for seven years, during which annual commercial income soared by £118m.

💟At the Emirates, he will take the title of Head of Partnerships Strategy & Commercial Ventures.

🌠It isn’t the top job in the department, which belongs to Chief Commercial Officer Juliet Slot, but his move from Anfield does suggest Arsenal are actively looking to steal a march on their rivals commercially.

“After seven wonderful years I will be moving on from LFC,”🐷 Sheridan wrote, shortly before confirming his switch to the Gunners.

“Liverpool is a very special club and I have loved being a part of it. I couldn’t have hoped for a more exciting time to be at LFC, I got to see and be part of so many incredible moments and I lost count of the number of times I thought to myself, “I can’t believe how lucky I am to be here”.

Position	Team	Played MP	Won W	Drawn D	Lost L	For GF	Against GA	Diff GD	Points Pts
1	LiverpoolLiverpool	19	14	4	1	47	19	28	46
2	ArsenalArsenal	20	11	7	2	39	18	21	40
3	Nottm ForestNottingham Forest	20	12	4	4	29	19	10	40
4	ChelseaChelsea	20	10	6	4	39	24	15	36
5	NewcastleNewcastle	20	10	5	5	34	22	12	35
6	Man CityManchester City	20	10	4	6	36	27	9	34

“The thing that consistently struck me, from my first day until my last, was the kind and generous nature of the people I worked with at every level of the hierarchy and across the wider Fenway family. It is an uncommonly nice group of people and they always made me feel supported, valued and trusted.

“It has been a magical period in my life and I will be forever grateful for the myriad ways that the club as a whole, and many wonderful individuals, made my working life so joyous.

“YNWA.“